Thursday afternoon update

Just a few thoughts as they trip out of my head

Please continue to be in prayer for little Stellan. My non-scientific non-medical brain understands it this way: His heart has an extra pathway and it's got that Supra Ventricular Tachycardia (really fast heartbeat) thing going on. But earlier today he slipped into Ventricular Tachycardia - think ER when you hear, "VTACH!" and they run for the paddles. He's come out of it, thank God. But he is a very, very sick baby. He needs a continued miracle. Stellan is a testament to the grace and mercy and power of God - my prayer is that his health will continue to improve and show the world all of what God is doing in his little body.




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*****

We had an ultrasound today. My midwife thought my amniotic fluid might be low and said that if it was, we'd need to get baby out within the week (read: induction if my body doesn't get itself in gear). To some that may sound glorious - "GREAT! No more being pregnant!", but for me, the 23 year old with two inductions under my belt, I would love nothing more than to go into labor naturally. And the idea that something could possibly be wrong had me edging back to the fear that I had fairly prevalent in my first 20 weeks of this pregnancy. The "What if's?" and "What about's?" were flying fast in my head and my heart.

The technician said she saw no reason for alarm, but that the findings would have to be confirmed by the specialist. So hopefully by tomorrow morning we'll have a full all's clear sign. But for the moment, I'm at peace with the information from the technician. This little girl has chubby cheeks - a la Oceana and Joshua - we aren't that surprised. :) But it's nice to know. And she's a playful little thing. She was sucking on her hand and playing with her umbilical cord. The playing with the umbilical cord became obviously because the poor technician had to spend 5+ minutes just finding a clear shot of the cord that wasn't near the baby's feet or hands since she kept playing with it and disrupting the reading she needed for umbilical blood flow. Hmm, methinks this little one will have no troubles keeping up with her big sister.

*****

We had a family day today. It wasn't really the plan, but Matt suggested we "go out" for the day. This included (but was not limited to), shopping (for fun, not groceries), walking, swinging, see-sawing, coffee-drinking (OJ drinking for Little Miss), more walking and wandering (move that baby down, WAYYY down), an ultrasound, reading books, eating hot chips out of newspaper in the grass, getting a sunburn (why do I keep forgetting that March still requires sunscreen - apparently I'm the only pale one in our family though, since Matt and Oceana are fine), and some driving and delivering of recycling to the recycle center. It was a really fun day. Oceana was a riot - I'll try to remember some of her funny sayings from the day. It was a nice memory of "The Three of Us". I'm really glad we had this day together.


*****

Upon seeing a bicycle, "Dats bewwy, bewwy daynjoous!"

While watching me lay on the bed at the ultrasound office, "Mommy, you on owee bed?"

"I da bwyd" - after finding a piece of a machine shaped like a U she put it on her head upside down (like a veil).

"Goo boy Dad! You good hehpew!" - watching Daddy put together a machine this evening.

After a few minutes of grabbing at her undies, "I go potty weew quick!" Said with her hand up in as stop sign as to say, "Don't come with me, I'll be fine".

"I Cindewewwa!" (playing around in her blue dress) "I have yewwow haiw dus wike Cindewewwa!"

"We dohn wanna make Daddy gwumpy...No!" After being told numerous times to stay out of the way/stop touching everything while Daddy built his machine.

*****

I was rather surprised to find out that I am not effaced or dilating yet. Only "softening". Blah... And here I was sure I'd be well dilated and effaced by now, since this little girl has been well-engaged and head-first since 34 weeks. But a month later, we've discovered that no such luck. That's okay. Like I told my midwife yesterday, "I'm fine with being pregnant another two weeks, so long as I don't have 2 weeks of Tuesdays!"

*****

Tuesday: Sharp contractions for over an hour, enough so that I sent Oceana to my mom's house and laid out on the couch. Then crampiness and contractions the remainder of the day. I couldn't accomplish anything, felt really out of sorts, and besides that it hurt! But the day after that I went to see Shirley (the midwife) and I was at 0 and 0. So those contractions don't seem to have made any visible difference. Boo! Oh well. Like I said, so long as I don't get 2 weeks of Tuesdays.

*****

Rest assured that when I've had the baby it'll be up on Twitter, Facebook, and the blog before you know it. That's one great thing about a homebirth - you all don't have to wait for Matt to get home from the hospital, take time to download the pictures, and then upload to the internet. It should go pretty quickly. And anyways, Havalah knows how to hack my Twitter, Facebook, and blog - so she can update ya'll. :) But don't be thinking you'll know when I'm in labor. Because I won't be sharing that tidbit! I know I'll get annoyed if people start calling to ask if she's come yet, when I'm dealing with petering out contractions. Ew, that's a yucky thought. We won't go there. :)